Report 2006-108 Recommendation 7 Responses

Report 2006-108: California Institute for Regenerative Medicine: It Has a Strategic Plan, but It Needs to Finish Developing Grant-Related Policies and Continue Strengthening Management Controls to Ensure Policy Compliance and Cost Containment (Release Date: February 2007)

Recommendation #7 To: Regenerative Medicine, California Institute for

The institute should seek a formal opinion from the attorney general regarding whether the exemptions created for working groups from conflict-of-interest laws are intended to exempt them from the conflict-of-interest provisions that apply if the recommendations of an advisory body are adopted routinely andregularly by the decision-making body to which they are made.

6-Month Agency Response

The institute states that it has given careful consideration to our recommendation and has decided that it is not appropriate to implement it at this time. The institute states that in almost three years of operation and approval of four rounds of grants, the committee has never routinely or regularly adopted the recommendations of the institute's working groups. Until the time that such a pattern is detected, the institute believes the question we raise is hypothetical and not appropriate for submission to the attorney general. However, the institute states that it will continue to monitor the committee approvals for such a pattern and will reconsider our recommendation if such a pattern emerges. (See 2008-406 p. 198)